North Wales's first Hilton hotel will open to guests this month after an £11m investment from Adventure Parc Snowdonia.
Following several years in the planning and a 14 month build the Hilton Garden Inn Snowdonia and Wave Garden Spa will open in Dolgarrog on May 18.
This comes nearly six years after the surfing lagoon - originally Surf Snowdonia - opened and follows a pandemic hit year for the tourism sector.
They are already taking in a "healthy" number of bookings for the next five months and across both the hotel and adventure sites expect to be employing more than 200 in the peak months - with extra staff still needed.
The firm expects around 110 of those roles to be permanent with year long employment and hope to attract 200,000 annual visitors across the sites.
Justin Everley, commercial director at Adventure Parc Snowdonia, said: "It's been a long journey.
"We have been talking about a hotel here for several years and to go from appointing architects to where we are now, it is a long, long journey.
"The actual build has not been bad, around 14 months. In some ways the lagoon being closed (it was shut all 2020) has made it a cleaner site, rather than the juggling act we were expecting to separate customers from the hotel build."
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He added: "It is now exciting and there are a lot of people that just want to get away.
"We feel we have got something which is definitely unique for the area, something special and turns our site more from a day trip to hopefully an overnight or multi-night stay.
"We already have healthy business booked in right up to the end of August - considering we have only just been able to publish when we are opening that is very good, hopefully we have a bumper four/five months coming."
The hotel has 106 bedrooms with prices starting from £89 and facilities include the Zephyr’s Restaurant & Bar, a spa with a vitality waterfall pool and oversized Himalayan salt sauna, treatment rooms, and conference and wedding rooms.
As well as being a place for visitors to stay and use Adventure Parc Snowdonia they expect guests to also use it as a hub to explore the local area. They have been working with companies like Aber Falls to promote offers like the distillery tours for those who are not seeking adventure.
Justin added: "We are nothing without all the rest of the companies that are here, it is cluster marketing, it is great.
"People coming here for a few days will need multiple things to do. I hope they use some of our other facilities here but if they don't it doesn't matter.
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"We are a tremendous base, close to Conwy and Betws-y-Coed, two honeypots of North Wales so it's a pretty good location really. We want to appeal to the 250,000 that go to Bodnant Gardens every year."
On weddings, he added: "It's a new venue for people looking to get married, a really nice wedding venue and the wider site makes a wedding a real weekend event. There is reason to stay for longer, and more here for children. "
The opening comes as the sector emerges from months of lockdown and restrictions.
Justin said: "It's bad and good timing. Bad that we can't operate it exactly as we would like to because there will be some Covid restrictions but at the same time those restrictions on international travel can help the business."
Talking about extending the tourism season, he added: "We would like the focus from Visit Wales to be on helping the industry in the shoulder season times.
"I don't think they need to spend time and resource to send people here in August because loads of people come then. It is showing what is great about this place in October and March so it's a 10 month season rather than a 6/7 month season, it means more and better employment for people. "
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